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Talk:Agency
Is this real Does anyone have any info on this organization? According to comicbookdb, it appears in Vigilante and Superboy. We have it linked in 2 issues right now but I'm reading Vigilante currently and some of the links for the various agents are under FBI already. So far, I haven't seen anything that makes it seem like this is anything other than a government agency like the FBI or CIA. In fact, "Agency" is a nickname for the CIA. So if someone has info on it, I'd be appreciative. Kyletheobald (talk) 04:10, February 17, 2014 (UTC) :Just from memory: The Agency was a Paul Kupperberg creation and can be seen as a predecessor to Checkmate since several agents later reappear in the eponymous 1988 title. Valentina Vostok (also a Kupperberg character) and Peacemaker (the latter more an associate than a member) are among the personnel. An Agency guy named Kramer also debuts in the 40s numbers of Vigilante and reappears in Checkmate. In Vigilante, the group remains rather undefined: It has few superpowered operatives (Vostok the most prominent one - which should tell you something) and takes an interest in costumed adventurers as prospective operative material. :Re Peacemaker: that character also appears in a Kupperberg-scripted 1988 LS (which got the political affiliations of East and West Berlin mixed up, rather embarrassingly); there, the ties between him and the Agency are explored more in-depth. As a thriller and a deeper exploration of the character, the title is recommended reading. :With the introduction of Checkkmate proper, the Agency may have been absorbed into that group (which became part of the Task Force X conglomerate). Anyway, I do not remember any mention of it post-1989. regards. --Lucien61 (talk) 07:09, February 17, 2014 (UTC) Some data points It may be useful to check Harry Stein's appearances in Doom Patrol Vol 2 2 and Doom Patrol Vol 2 16. In Doom Patrol #2, Harry has a thought balloon describing his duties as "mostly babysitting Vigilante" and a footnote tells us to refer to recent issues of Vigilante. "Recent issues" is a bit of a stretch if Harry was introduced in Vigilante #23 and the Agency in #36, since the current issue of Vigilante is by then #47 (the series ended with #50). Still, by #16 Vigilante has ended, Checkmate's own book is in #11 already, and Harry's appearance in Doom Patrol's book is fully blown, including some action from a Knight and an extended conversation with what I assume to be a Bishop. We are clearly expected to perceive Checkmate as either the same Agency which Harry Stein was a member of in #2 or its natural successor. Maybe the Agency was always Checkmate with a lower profile, maybe it was not. But the role and nature of the entity have certainly changed, while the staff seems to have have translated wholesale. From what I remember of the Peacemaker miniseries, later issues of Vigilante, and early issues of Checkmate (Thorn is a featured character in the last two) we are certainly expected to think of Checkmate as as extension of Vigilante's intelligence agency. Yet it should be obvious that Checkmate as seen in its own book would not feel quite so helpless with the likes of Vigilante and Peacemaker. It seems to me that we are expected to assume that, at least in part due to the events in Vigilante and Peacemaker, the Agency was given an overhaul, a new name, and a considerably larger budget and role. LuisDantas (talk) 10:34, September 8, 2018 (UTC) The Agenda, from 1997 issues of Superboy Comicbookdb seems to be mistaken about the Agency appearing in issues of Superboy. It lists #35, #40 and #41. All of those feature a group of secrete genetic researchers called The Agenda. There is not any real reason to think of them as being Agency seem in Vigilante. LuisDantas (talk) 13:13, September 16, 2018 (UTC)